Tuesday, March 31, 2015

In the wake of the financial crisis, President Obama took the helm of a sinking economic ship and help to right it. The unemployment rate is now once again at pre-recession levels -- the lowest in seven years (5.5%).

President Obama's Administration, with only opposition from the Republicans, has steadily helped put more than 11 million Americans back to work in the private sector. In the strongest period of American manufacturing job growth since the 1990s, the sector has added more than 750,000 jobs since February 2010. As New York Timescolumnist Paul Krugman notes, the economy is "now adding jobs at a rate not seen since the Clinton years." The dollar is on its fastest rise in 40 years; its value has increased 14% in this first quarter alone and it's the strongest it's been in 12 years compared to the Euro.

Maybe most important, the number of long-term unemployed is down by 1.1 million. Why are the Republicans so silent about the good news? They claim to be the party of "jobs." Perhaps they knew their history.

PBS pointed out a study from the "strictly non-partisan National Bureau for Economic Research" that shows "under Democratic presidents, per capita GDP has been higher; job creation has been stronger; decreases in unemployment have been greater; the S&P 500 stock index has been higher; corporate profits have been bigger; and real wages and labor productivity have increased."

As Brad Plumer also noted in the Washington Post, "Since World War II, there's been a strikingly consistent pattern in American politics: The economy does much better when a Democrat is in the White House... the U.S. economy has grown at an average real rate of 4.35 percent under Democratic presidents and just 2.54 percent under Republicans." If one drops the Eisenhower years, it is far worse for the GOP.

This pattern holds true under President Obama. The conservative Wall Street Journalhad to admit, "American families have made major progress cutting their debt burdens, putting them in a stronger position to drive spending and growth. Total U.S. household debt was about 107% of disposable income in the fourth quarter, down from 108% in the previous quarter and well over 130% before the recession." Under President Obama, the deficit continues to fall even more since being cut in half by 2013 from 2009. In his first term, the president also cut taxes by $3,600 for the average middle-class family.

Monday, March 30, 2015

There’s a lot of fuzzy math in American politics, but Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, recently set a new standard when he declared the cost of Obamacare “unconscionable.”Dr. Paul Klugman says If you do “simple multiplication,” heinsisted, you find that the coverage expansion is costing $5 million per recipient. But his calculation was a bit off — namely, by a factor of more than a thousand. The actual cost per newly insured American is about $4,000. Now, everyone makes mistakes. But this wasn’t a forgivable error. Whatever your overall view of the Affordable Care Act, one indisputable fact is that it’s costing taxpayers much less than expected — about20 percent less, according to the Congressional Budget Office....Early last year, Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-backed group, ran a series of ads featuring alleged Obamacare victims — but not one of those tales of woe stood up to scrutiny. More recently, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State took to Facebook to ask for Obamacare horror stories. What she got instead was a torrent of testimonials from people whose lives have been improved, and in some cases saved, by health reform.In reality, the only people hurt by health reform are Americans with very high incomes, who have seen their taxes go up, and a relatively small number of people who have seen their premiums rise because they’re young and healthy (so insurers previously saw them as good risks) and affluent (so they don’t qualify for subsidies). Neither group supplies suitable victims for attack ads.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly continues to insist that he never misrepresented or embellished his wartime reporting experiences and other previous episodes—even after CNN, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Media Matters, and Mother Jones reported significant discrepancies between O'Reilly's accounts and what actually occurred. Last Tuesday, O'Reilly appeared on David Letterman's show, where he maintained he had always been "accurate" when discussing his journalistic exploits and had never "fibbed" on air. ("Not that I know of," he said.) Yet O'Reilly's characterizations of his reporting during the Falklands war, El Salvador's civil war, the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Los Angeles riots of 1992, and the 1977 re-investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination have been repeatedly challenged, in several cases by former colleagues. Now a principal character in one of O'Reilly's more dramatic tales—in which the Fox commentator plays a heroic role—says this particular story is not accurate.http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/cameraman-disputes-bill-oreilly-falklands-war-story

Sunday, March 29, 2015

The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power

Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes. Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream

by Richard Behar

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to obtain his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

John Boehner has done it again, defending the Republican budget by making a Bartonian foray into speculative fiction. Completely bypassing reality, he held a press conference yesterday in which he asserted that,
For 53 of the last 60 years, the federal government has spent more than it has taken in – 53 of the last 60 years. It’s unacceptable.
To this day, now in his seventh year in office, the president has never proposed a budget that balances. Our budget will balance, but it’s also about growing our economy, growing jobs and building economic strength for our future.John Boehner’s Defense of the GOP Budget is Pure Fiction, if Lies Can be Called Pure

John Boehner has done it again, defending the Republican budget by making a Bartonian foray into speculative fiction. Completely bypassing reality, he held a press conferenceyesterday in which he asserted that,

For 53 of the last 60 years, the federal government has spent more than it has taken in – 53 of the last 60 years. It’s unacceptable.

To this day, now in his seventh year in office, the president has never proposed a budget that balances. Our budget will balance, but it’s also about growing our economy, growing jobs and building economic strength for our future.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/18/john-boehners-defense-gop-budget-pure-fiction-lies-called-pure.htmlThis party should be outlawed and these crooks should go to jail starting with John Boehner...they serve their corporate masters PERIOD. It always blows my mind that USA voters are so stupid to vote for GOP. 99% do NOT benefit from GOP policies and agenda. "This is the GOP of the 21st century - secretive and extreme - a party .... just like last year to get budget passed he turned to nancy and even ..... The next two years will prove that they CAN'T govern, pass effective bills or please the country. "SourceRepublicans have crafted dozens of bills ostensibly devoted to "streamlining and simplifying" the federal government. So they claim BUT the truth is...These bills, it turns out, are essentially efforts to undermine Wall Street reform and Obamacare while greenlighting pollution.Amit Narang, regulatory policy advocate for the nonprofit group Public Citizen, told The Huffington Post this week. "If these measures were to become law, the public could expect... inaction on climate change and another Wall Street meltdown."

WASHINGTON -- Since taking control of the House in 2010, Republicans have crafted dozens of bills ostensibly devoted to "streamlining and simplifying" the federal government. They've pushed them through the lower chamber, promising to cut red tape and create jobs. But on Tuesday, they let the cat out of the bag. These bills, it turns out, are essentially efforts to undermine Wall Street reform and Obamacare while greenlighting pollution.

Much of the House GOP's jobs package is devoted to legislation requiring various forms of "cost-benefit analysis" on new regulations. Critics, however, have repeatedly noted that agencies already have to perform a host of economic impact assessments before making rules. They argue that these bills are really only interested in emphasizing costs.

The benefits of regulations, after all, tend to be longer-term and hard to quantify, while costs are relatively easy to figure out. When you curb pollution and give people access to health insurance, it saves lives -- something far more difficult to assign a dollar value than the upfront costs to corporate interests.

"I’ve made my decision – I’m out. I’m out of the Republican Party," Beck said on his radio show. "I am not a Republican; I will not give a dime to the Republican Party. I’m out. I highly recommend – run from the Republican Party. They are not good."

Beck's apparent frustration lies with the GOP's inability to defeat President Obama's actions on healthcare and immigration, as well as the establishment wing's opposition to insurgent Senators like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz.

"They ran and they said they were doing all of these great things and they were going to stand against Obamacare and illegal immigration – they set us up," Beck said. "They set us up. Enough is enough. They’re torpedoing the constitution and they’re doing it knowingly. They’re taking on people like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and they are torpedoing them. Knowingly."

"So I’m done with them," Beck continued. "Four years ago I was with them. Four years ago I said work from the inside: let’s change it. Let’s get new guys in there. It’s too late.”

Beck, who achieved national fame and notoriety as a Fox News host, wields a significant amount of influence among conservatives and libertarians. He launched his own news site TheBlaze, which includes television, radio and digital platforms, in 2011.

Congressman With 'Downton Abbey Office' Quits
Republican Aaron Schock announces his resignation amid questions about his spending, including on renovations to his office.

A US congressman, seen as a young rising star in the Republican Party, has announced he will resign amid questions about his lavish spending.

Representative Aaron Schock said in a statement that he would step down effective on 31 March.

The Illinois Republican said he was making the decision to leave Congress with a "heavy heart".

He said questions about irregularities in his campaign finance and congressional spending accounts had proven to be a "great distraction" and have made it too difficult for him to serve.

Mr Schock began facing questions last month after The Washington Post reported about pricey renovations made to his Capitol Hill office.

The 33-year-old had redecorated his congressional office in the style of the British TV drama Downton Abbey.

He later repaid the government $40,000 (£27,000) for the renovation.

Mr Schock was also being questioned about a Chicago Sun-Times report that said he billed taxpayers for the mileage on his $74,000 (£50,000) Chevy Tahoe that had been paid for by his political committees.

Mr Schock had built a substantial following by posting flashy photos on social media of himself travelling, surfing and on other adventures.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Origins:
Popular quotations need famous mouths, history has proved time and
again: If you want people to pay attention to a statement, the odds that
they will do so are greatly enhanced if those words seemingly issued
from mind and lips of someone they know and respect. Thus it was not
surprising when the following quotation exploded across the Internet in
July 2014 after they were attributed to Meryl Streep, the critically
acclaimed actress who has received more Academy Award nominations (18)
than any other actor or actress, and has won three Academy Awards, twice
in the Best Actress category and once in the Best Supporting Actress
category:

As far as we can tell, the earliest Facebook reposting of Teixeira's words that incorrectly credited them to Meryl Streep occurred on the page of Tuncluer Textiles on 15 July 2014, and the quote went viral in that form after being combined with a photograph of Meryl Streep and published on the Romanian-language "Ioadicaeu's Blog" on 31 July
2014. The photo used to accompany the text in the example version at
the head of this page was one that appeared in the Facebook post by Obvious Magazine that Teixeira referenced in his own Facebook post.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/quotes/nopatience.asp#UYGkfSHrDMqt7oJy.99

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/quotes/nopatience.asp#UYGkfSHrDMqt7oJy.99

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

These guys deserve a parade and their own show on HGTV.
Any man can stumble into the nearest Future Shop to buy a big-screen TV
for his “man cave.” Any guy can trick out his basement with sports
memorabilia and Barcaloungers. Any man can trigger an eye roll from his
partner when he earnestly nails a “Do Not Enter” sign to the garage door
or waxes longingly at the pub about the need to get away from it all.
But the male bonding dreams of these two men in their 20s was on a
higher level, by which I mean, an underground level: they were building
an actual man cave.
Who are these future folk heroes? More important, how can I be their friend?

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About Me

The late great comedian George Carlin once said "life's a beach"...the world is changing at an alarming rate, for some , its a life or death struggle and for others its another media event on the nightly news, like the 44th President Barack Obamas landslide win in the worst world economy since the 1929 crash. And the killing of Osama by Obama!
and in 2016 Trump 45th President Of The USA. Bush's Republican playbook.
This blog is this bloggers effort to chronicle history as its being made,I will attempt to blog the events that fall under the categories of being strange,weird,curious,mediocre and the most significant events of your life and mine. These grabbed headlines during the years of your lifetime and mine.